Case Study: LITTLE Diversified Architectural Consulting achieves 98% faster backups and $198K annual bandwidth savings with Riverbed Steelhead appliances

Riverbed Steelhead Appliances Enable Streamlined Remote Office Backup for Architecture Firm

LITTLE Diversified Architectural Consulting, a 300‑person architecture and design firm with seven remote offices, faced critical data‑protection and collaboration challenges: designers stored large, desktop‑intensive files locally, tape‑based and later Double‑Take/Tivoli backups were slow, error‑prone and created WAN congestion, and a single day’s data loss could cost the firm up to $200,000. The company needed a secure, centralized backup process and better WAN performance to enable reliable collaboration across distributed teams.

LITTLE deployed Riverbed Steelhead appliances at headquarters and six remote offices to accelerate backups and optimize CAD, graphics, CIFS, FTP and email traffic while keeping existing backup software. Backup windows fell from four hours to five minutes (98% reduction), Double‑Take traffic was optimized by 82% and overall WAN traffic dropped ~60%, effectively increasing bandwidth capacity 3.1×. The solution cut annual bandwidth costs by about $198,000, delivered payback in roughly six months, and enabled centralized data access and simpler IT management.

Little Diversified Architectural Consulting

Chris France

CIO, Little